The Overlord of Puluo

Li Banfeng did not come out right away. In fact, he stayed inside the Pocket Dwelling for a full sixteen hours.

He stayed inside after thinking it through very carefully. There were several reasons for it.

First, he could not be certain whether Ling Miaoying had planted a hook on him. To be safe, he asked his wifey to check him from head to toe, searching every inch, cleaning every trace, and making absolutely sure nothing strange had been attached to him.

Fortunately, after a thorough inspection, his wifey found nothing.

The second reason was that Li Banfeng had no idea whether Ling Miaoying might chase after the train. Worse still, he had no idea when the train would stop.

If Ling Miaoying had managed to jump onto the train, or if the train had simply stopped right back in Greenwater City when Li Banfeng came out, then his escape would have been meaningless.

He would be standing exactly where he started, neatly delivered back into Ling Miaoying’s hands.

In terms of cultivation, Li Banfeng was no match for Ling Miaoying. He also lacked experience. And when it came to enchanted artifacts, he held no advantage either. If Ling Miaoying managed to get him under control again, Li Banfeng would surely lose his life.

The only thing he could rely on was the Pocket Dwelling. Hiding inside it a little longer was clearly the wisest choice.

Of course, there was still one troubling possibility. What if Ling Miaoying had boarded the train and picked up the key?

Was Li Banfeng not afraid? He was afraid, but he knew that being afraid wouldn’t do anything.

If Ling Miaoying had really found the key and decided to take it, there would have been nothing Li Banfeng could do to stop him anyway.

And so, Li Banfeng simply prepared himself for the worst.

If Ling Miaoying had taken the key, he would most likely bring it back and study it. And after studying it for more than a dozen hours, even someone like Ling Miaoying would grow tired sooner or later. When that happened, he would surely put the key aside somewhere.

It was now two in the morning. Ling Miaoying was most likely asleep, which made this Li Banfeng’s best chance to escape.

When Li Banfeng finally stepped out of the Pocket Dwelling, he quickly discovered that he was still on the train, which meant that Ling Miaoying had not picked up the key.

For Li Banfeng, this was already a fairly ideal situation. All he needed to do now was stay quietly inside the train car, wait for the train to reach a station, get off, and then find a way back to Greenwater City.

The last time he rode a train, he had never once pulled back the curtain to look outside. This was a rare opportunity. Li Banfeng walked to the edge of the train car and carefully admired the scenery passing by outside.

In actuality, there was not much scenery to admire. The night was deep, and the sky was pitch black. On both sides of the tracks, Li Banfeng could only see the dark silhouettes of trees rushing past in a blur.

After watching for a moment, the train conductor beside him reminded him, ”The train is entering a tunnel. Lie down first.”

Li Banfeng quickly dropped down into the pile of coal, lying flat beside the conductor.

When did this train conductor get here? Li Banfeng wondered. He had not noticed the man at all.

After the train passed through the tunnel, the conductor stood in front of him and asked, ”Why are you on this train?”

Li Banfeng thought about it for a moment. Then he offered what he considered to be a very reasonable explanation. ”I have a ticket!”

He took out the ticket and handed it over. The conductor examined it briefly, then returned it to Li Banfeng. ”This ticket is not for this train.”

”Is that so?” Li Banfeng studied his ticket very carefully. Then he looked just as carefully at the train. Finally, he raised his head and asked with a shocked expression, ”What is the number of this train? Did I get on the wrong one?”

Li Banfeng felt his performance was extremely convincing. Unfortunately, the conductor did not look convinced at all.

Without the slightest change in expression, the conductor replied, ”This is Train 1151. The one you need is Train 1173. And this is a freight train. You are supposed to be on a passenger train.”

Hearing this, Li Banfeng quickly tucked his ticket away and began apologizing repeatedly.

”It’s my first time taking a train,” he said. ”I must have boarded the wrong one by mistake. When we reach the next station, I’ll get off immediately.”

The conductor, however, did not see it the same way. ”If I let you reach the next station, that would be a serious dereliction of duty on my part.”

Li Banfeng thought for a moment before offering another suggestion.

”Then we can wait for a temporary stop,” he said. ”I’ll get off right away.”

”This train has no temporary stops scheduled,” the conductor replied.

”Then please arrange one.”

The conductor shook his head again. ”Arranging a temporary stop whenever I want would also count as dereliction of duty.”

Li Banfeng frowned slightly. ”Then what do you plan to do?”

”I suggest you get off immediately.”

”If you don’t stop the train, how am I supposed to get off?”

Wooo~

The train whistle sounded through the night.

From the side of the train car, a long iron pole slowly extended outward. It slid out so calmly and so naturally that for a moment Li Banfeng did not even realize what was about to happen.

The conductor did not waste any time. He extended the pole and jabbed Li Banfeng straight off the train. Li Banfeng went tumbling down the embankment and rolled into the woods beside the tracks.

To be fair, Li Banfeng did try to resist. Unfortunately, he failed.

In Puluo Province, there was one rule everyone knew: never offend a train attendant.

Li Banfeng had now learned it firsthand.

Where am I?

Li Banfeng dusted himself off and tried to figure out which way to go.

Fortunately, he could still tell his directions. North was north. South was south. That part was easy enough. But as for where he actually was? He had absolutely no idea.

Should I just follow the railway back?

He had barely taken a few steps when a sudden, inexplicable chill washed over him.

Danger.

It was not hard to guess where that source of danger was.

Ling Miaoying must suspect I am on this train, Li Banfeng thought. He might already be searching along the railway, waiting to catch me. But Ling Miaoying doesn’t know where I got off, so the safest move is to get as far away from the railway as possible.

Relying on the Seeking Fortune and Avoiding Calamity technique, Li Banfeng made his way through the forest. He traveled far, walking through the entire night.

The forest paths were terrible to walk on. Roots twisted across the ground, the earth was uneven, and danger seemed to lurk behind every tree.

Li Banfeng had never set foot in this place before. As he moved deeper into the forest, he kept his guard up and walked with the greatest caution.

At dawn, Li Banfeng finally walked out of the forest. After passing through a narrow canyon, he saw the first signs of human activity.

At the entrance to the canyon stood eight enormous gates.

Each gate was five meters wide and eight meters tall, with two heavy leaves that opened from the center. They stood in a single row beneath four massive gate frames, sealing off the entire canyon.

Even from a distance, Li Banfeng could tell the gates were extremely thick and built from very sturdy material.

How many people does it take to push those gates open? What is behind those gates? A hidden realm? A tomb? Or something far more sinister...?

Huff... huff...

What is that sound? Is the train catching up? Did Ling Miaoying catch up to me?

Li Banfeng heard the distinctive chuffing of a steam train and shuddered from head to toe.

He looked around but saw no train. Instead, the leftmost gate at the canyon entrance slowly began to open.

Chuff... chuff...

He saw no one operating it. Only black smoke and white steam puffed out along the gate panels.

A steam-powered gate? Something like this actually exists?

呜呜~

Wooo~ Wooo~

After two whistles sounded, the gate opened completely.

Li Banfeng took a few steps toward it and sensed no danger. He needed to find someone to ask for directions, and he was also curious to see who was controlling the steam-powered gate.

But when he passed through the gate, he saw no one. There was only a massive grandfather clock.

The clock stood nearly two meters tall. Its enormous pendulum swung back and forth with a steady rhythm, the polished surface reflecting Li Banfeng from head to toe each time it passed.

Behind the clock face, a maze of gears turned without pause. The gears pushed and pulled long metal rods, and those rods controlled the steam valves running along the pipes.

Li Banfeng had studied a bit of basic mechanics back in university. After watching the clock for a while, he began to figure out how the contraption worked.

This clock wasn’t just for telling time. It was also a timer.

It was seven in the morning now. When the preset time arrived, the mechanism inside the clock would automatically release the steam valve, and the steam engine would rumble to life and push the gate open.

This is high tech! Li Banfeng exclaimed inwardly. He had spent so long in Greenwater City, yet he had never seen a steam-powered gate like this.

The mechanism was built with remarkable precision. The gate opened and closed without anyone touching it. Small limit switches had been installed at the hinges, and once the gate reached its proper position, the steam valve shut off automatically.

But there must be someone taking care of the boiler, right? Li Banfeng thought. Don’t tell me there are steam robots.

Following the trail of smoke, Li Banfeng soon found the chimney, and then the boiler room.

Sure enough, several people were inside tending the boiler.

There were five men in total. Two were shoveling coal, two were filling the boiler with water, and the last was copying down readings, recording the temperature and pressure.

Li Banfeng walked to the doorway and asked, ”Gentlemen, may I ask where this place is?”

The boiler room was deafeningly loud. Several men looked at Li Banfeng, but they seemed unable to hear what he was saying.

Li Banfeng raised his voice and shouted again, ”Everyone, I’m asking for directions!”

They still couldn’t hear him clearly. One of them pointed toward the sign by the door: Authorized Personnel Only

Li Banfeng turned and left. He didn’t have to ask these people for directions.

In a village this big, there had to be someone he could ask. These people were busy working. There was no need for him to make a nuisance of himself.

The village was crammed with houses standing shoulder to shoulder, and every one of them looked almost exactly the same. Each was a two-story building with a flat roof and a pitch-black iron gate that made the place feel oddly severe.

By Li Banfeng’s estimate, each floor measured around seventy to eighty square meters. Put together, the two floors made a house of roughly one hundred fifty to one hundred sixty square meters, and the buildings stood only about five meters apart, lined up so neatly that it almost looked as if someone had arranged them with a ruler.

How did they manage to build the village so neatly? Li Banfeng wondered.

Perhaps Li Banfeng had arrived too early. The road lay empty, without a single passerby in sight.

With no one around, who was he supposed to ask for directions?

Li Banfeng walked up to one of the small buildings and knocked on the black iron gate. He waited for quite a while, but no one answered from inside.

If this house didn’t answer, he would try the next one. But the next house didn’t answer either.

He knocked on more than a dozen gates in a row before one of them finally showed a sign of movement.

Clatter, clatter.

A small metal cover on the iron gate slid open, revealing the peephole.

Someone inside watched Li Banfeng through the tiny hole for quite a while. Only after a long pause did a small window in the iron gate creak open.

”Who are you looking for?”

A young man stood behind the door. Through the small window, Li Banfeng could see most of his face.

His skin was unusually pale, the sort of pale that suggested he had not seen proper sunlight in quite some time. His hair was a little long but neatly kept. A faint bluish shadow hung above his lips. Clearly he shaved, though not very often.

For some reason, the young man’s appearance gave Li Banfeng a strange sense of familiarity.

The young man, however, did not seem to find Li Banfeng friendly at all. His eyes kept drifting away, doing their best to avoid meeting Li Banfeng’s gaze.

It was obvious that he did not like strangers.

”I am here to ask for directions,” Li Banfeng said. ”Could you tell me where this place is?”

The young man replied, ”This is Iron Gate Fort.”

Iron Gate Fort? A territory in the Lower Thirty Percent. And somehow he had followed the train all the way here. Now how am I supposed to get back?

Do I have to go all the way to the station and buy a ticket?

Li Banfeng still had a travel permit in hand, a round-trip pass between Blackstone Slope and Greenwater City. But would that thing even work in Iron Gate Fort?

Even if it did, Li Banfeng had no real desire to go anywhere near the station. Ever since he had come to Puluo Province, his experiences at train stations had been anything but pleasant.

Better to head back through the New Land, he thought. Iron Gate Fort is marked on Old Mister Yao’s map.

”May I ask how to get to the New Land?”

”Which part of the New Land are you asking about?”

Li Banfeng recalled the markings on the map. ”Peach Blossom Lake.”

The young man thought for a moment before answering. ”First leave the fort. When you reach the main gate, turn right and walk straight.”

”After walking for more than ten minutes, you will come to a fork in the road. There’s a large willow tree there. It’s especially big, so you won’t miss it.

”When you are facing the willow tree, take the left fork and keep going. Don’t take any other turns along the way. Just continue straight ahead. Walk for about half a day, and you will see Peach Blossom Lake.

”When you are facing Peach Blossom Lake, turn halfway around from left to right and walk to a large rock. Then jump into the lake. At the bottom, you will find the New Land.”

He gave the directions using front, back, left, and right rather than north, south, east, and west. He measured distance using time instead of meters or kilometers.

The more Li Banfeng listened, the more he felt that this man had an oddly likeable air about him.

”Thank you.” Li Banfeng took out a banknote and tried to hand it to the man.

The man lowered his head. ”I don’t want money!”

He became shy and awkward so easily that Li Banfeng felt as if he were looking at an old friend.

Li Banfeng wanted to chat with him a little longer, but the man on the other side seemed reluctant to continue the conversation.

Li Banfeng slipped the banknote into the crack of the door and turned to leave.

The man called out from behind him, ”Wait a moment.”

Li Banfeng didn’t stop to hear what the man had to say.

The man twisted the door open and hurried out after him. ”I don’t want your money. I forgot to mention earlier, if you can’t swim, don’t go to Peach Blossom Lake. You will drown.”

Li Banfeng nodded. ”Thank you. This money...”

”I don’t want it!” the man said, stubborn as a mule. It was the sort of stubbornness you often found in people who spent most of their lives indoors.

He turned to go back inside. Just then, an old man came trundling into the fort on a donkey cart.

The cart was piled high with bulging sacks.

The young man hurried over and asked, ”How much is white rice per half a kilo?”

The old man, as it turned out, was selling grain.

”Two and a half!” the old man called, pulling the donkey cart to a stop.

The young man thought the price sounded rather high, but he said nothing. Bargaining was not something he could easily do.

”Give me one sack.”

The old man took out a sack of rice and handed it to the young man. ””Twenty-five kilos per sack. One hundred twenty-five yuan.”

The young man nodded. He carefully counted out the money and passed it to the old man.

When he bought things, he always paid first.

The old man handed over the sack. The young man opened it and peered inside. ”There seems to be quite a bit of sand mixed in the rice. Could I change it for another sack...”

”They are all the same. What’s there to change!” the old man snapped, flicking the reins and driving the donkey cart away.

The young man stood there with the sack in his arms. He had never been very good at negotiating when buying things, especially since he had already paid.

These traits were painfully obvious. They were the sort of habits almost every homebody had.

Li Banfeng looked at the man and couldn’t help asking, ”Are you a Homebound Cultivator?”

The man glanced at Li Banfeng, said nothing, and carried the sack of rice back inside.

The old man driving the donkey cart laughed. ”First time in Iron Gate Fort, isn’t it? Everyone living here is a Homebound Cultivator!”

All of them are Homebound Cultivators? Then this might be a good place to stay for a few more days.

No matter what, Ling Miaoying will never know I am here. This is perfect chance for me to learn more about Homebound Cultivation.”

Author’s Note:

PS: Iron Gate Fort is truly a place people would yearn to stay in.